Mediaboss Marketing

20 March 2012 Last updated at 20:39 ET By Rami Ruhayem BBC News, Baghdad

For several weeks, Iraq has been gripped by a most gruesome rumour.

Iraqi teenagers who dress in tight black clothes, the rumour goes, are being picked up by extremists who then crush their skulls with blocks of cement.

The victims are referred to as "emos", a term originally used in the West to describe youths who listen to a melodic style of rock music, and dress in alternative clothing.

But in Iraq, it has come to mean any man with long hair or a slightly feminine appearance. Emos have also been described alternatively as Satanists, vampires, gays, masons, or all of the above.

Some Iraqi media have said dozens of them, perhaps more than 70, have been killed recently.

Soon enough, almost every media organisation in the country was scrambling to put together its own report about the unexpected phenomenon, and the accompanying terror.

The only problem is that little of it has been verified.

According to the authorities, none of this has happened. A spokesman for Iraq's police said that some young people do dress "strangely", and they have been "dealt with" through peaceful guidance. Alaa Jassem said the media blew the whole thing out of proportion.

He mentioned the case of a "delicate" 17-year-old man named Saif who was killed, but added that it was "just a tribal killing" that had nothing to do with his appearance.

Read more:
Iraq's Emo killings: A horror story out of control?